Despite the growing crisis within Portugal’s public health sector, Prime Minister Luís Montenegro has vowed that the Minister of Health will remain in government.
The guarantee came after MPs from opposition party CHEGA accused Ana Paula Martins of “incompetence” following the deaths of three people in quick succession due to delays in emergency medical care.
“Health problems are not solved by dismissals or political manoeuvres. They are solved with conviction, competence, persistence and resilience, and that is why this government, this prime minister and the health minister are in government and will remain in government,” said Montenegro in the fortnightly debate in parliament.
The PM insisted that the government is “solving structural health problems, strengthening available resources, taking legislative measures that provide greater management capacity, and effectively improving the efficiency of the system, which, despite the difficulties, is responding more quickly than a year ago”.
Earlier, Chega MP Pedro Pinto asked Montenegro if he would dismiss the health minister, whom he accused of incompetence.
“Once again, your government has failed, and we are facing the total collapse of the health service and healthcare in Portugal,” said Pinto.
“This is not Botswana, it is not Bangladesh, it is Portugal and the state in which you have left healthcare,” the Chega MP insisted, describing the government’s healthcare policies as “a disaster”.
Faced with Montenegro’s refusal to dismiss Ana Paula Martins, Pinto commented that the minister “has seven lives”.
“There have already been cases and scandals, and the prime minister continues to support her, as if it were the last thing to do (…) The prime minister said that things are resolved with competence, not with the incompetence of the minister,” he criticised.
In his reply, the PM defended the need to make “a rigorous and careful assessment” of the incidents, as opposed to “more alarmist and opportunistic political rhetoric, which draws hasty conclusions”.
Source: LUSA
